Politics & Government

Letter to the Editor: Council Candidate Lee Fleck's Vision for Roswell

Roswell City Council Post 2 candidate Lee Fleck opens up about his vision for putting Roswell on the same path to success as a neighboring city.

Open Letter to the Citizens of Roswell,

Is creating a municipal plan and a set of strategies so foreign to our current city council that they are incapable of doing it? 

There is some comfort knowing there is a well thought out, well written, and clearly defined comprehensive 2030 plan that was developed with extensive input by Roswell citizens.

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Yet our council is headed elsewhere. I am convinced combining this plan with strategies is apparently a bridge too far to travel for the current council.

Citizens, we are faced with opportunities disguised as unsolvable problems. Let’s not wait for prosperity before we resolve them. I will stop wasting our money on self-serving programs and gratuitous expenditures.

Find out what's happening in Roswellwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

This council has liquidated our reserves, spending over $30 million in the last four years. They are poised to call for two bonds totaling $57 million that have absolutely no correlation to the 2030 Comprehensive plan the community developed.

The truth of the matter is that Roswell faces budget shortfalls because elected leaders are not being creative about generating revenues. Instead, they will continue to put pressure on its citizens in the form of fees and taxes to maintain the current level of services.

Yes, certainly we need a developmental authority with broad powers. Yes, we need Opportunity Zones. Yes, we need private and public partnerships to attract new businesses and help retain existing businesses. But re-establishing a Downtown Development Authority or establishing a Strategic Economic Development Plan a few months before an election simply provides incumbents with sound bites during a campaign. Meanwhile, the highly touted Roswell Business Alliance will not start up until next year. None of this political posturing alleviates congested traffic, loitering illegal aliens and commercial impervious surface fees that do nothing but drive new businesses to our neighbor to the North.

I will focus on the 2030 plan and redeveloping blighted areas while working within the confines of a balanced budget. I propose that we emulate the success of our neighbor Alpharetta that is thriving in this down economy and facing a brighter future by investing in their infrastructure, wiring their city with fiber optic cable to attract high technology corporations that bring high paying jobs.

I foresee a fly-over bridge traversing Ga. 400 connecting Old Alabama Road to Mansell Road or Norcross Street to reduce the congestion on Holcomb Bridge Road and to provide for development in the Northwest quadrant of the Ga. 400 / Holcomb Bridge interchange. We need to focus bond monies here so that when the economy does improve, Roswell can take advantage of the upswing in the economy that will pay dividends and insure the level of services that Roswell citizens have come to expect. This is my vision for the immediate future of our great city.

Lee Fleck


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